On 15 March 1672, Charles II issued the Declaration of Indulgence, the second of many attempts at promoting toleration, not
only for Nonconformists—those Protestants who refused to take
the Anglican sacraments—but also for Roman Catholics. Two
days later, the third Anglo-Dutch War was declared. Charles had
signed a secret treaty with France in 1670, now called the Treaty
of Dover, in which he promised Louis XTV the reestablishment
of the rights of Roman Catholics in England and military support for France against the Dutch in return for a substantial sum
of money that would ease his financial troubles. He was also to
announce his conversion to Catholicism and to receive further
stipends for the purpose of financing an army of six thousand
provided by the French king, which was to deal with the reaction
of English Protestants following the announcement. The nature
of the pact was such that, were the terms to leak out, England
would have been plunged into utter chaos. Even without the
knowledge of the Treaty of Dover, the reaction of English Protestants against the Declaration of Indulgence was immediate and
vehement. The fact that Charles sided with a Catholic nation
against what was so recently a Protestant ally was enough to
raise the suspicion that the Declaration was part of a broader
Catholic conspiracy, which it was in a way, although Charles's
real motives are not very clear.1 Scores of pamphlets poured out
against toleration of Roman Catholics, and Parliament, when it
convened in February and March 1673, swiftly passed the Test
Act, which enforced penal laws against Roman Catholics and
threw out their priests, and also prohibited non-Anglicans from

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